Emak Bakia Analysis

In the first shot of Emak-Bakia the image of Man Ray cranking the camera this essentially “broke the cinematic illusion by pointing to the film as a product of the camera.” (Short, p. 27) He incorporates sprinkled salt and pepper animated nails and thumbtack sequence the notion that entire sections could be cut out of one work and dropped into another appeared to be downright extravagant. The sequence of shots involving the car and animals suggests that the car has collided with the animal “she braked within a few feet of the animals. This gave me an idea-why not show a collision? I stepped out of the car, followed the herd while winding up the camera and set it in movement, then threw it thirty feet up in the air, catching it again. The …show more content…
This give evidence of Man Rays interest in working with the attributes of the photographic cinematographic medium, each leg is more transparent than the pervious. (Elder, pg 600) A portion of the film consists of stop motion with various objects. One of the objects is the sculpture also called Emak Bakia that man ray produced in 1926. the piece consists of a wooden part that resembles the neck of a cello but has loose horsehair instead of strings. Man Ray once said, “Nature, from the sea-shell to the galaxy, is full of spirals: when I was a young man I was already obsessed by this form; when working as a draughtsman I was fascinated by curves, spirals, parabolas, hyperbolas.” (Man Ray, pg) The shot with the man (Jacques Rigaut) getting out of the car seems to lead to a hope for the viewer that the confusion of the film will be explained, however the very next shot is of the building taken at 90 degrees so as to abstract the buildings form. This leads to a disorientation and represents the abstract in a new way. Jacques Rigaut a man who’s interests in real life included drugs and suicide ironically is pictured in the next scene pulling the shirt collar apart suggesting violence to the neck or